Roberto Rosetti (born 18 September 1967 in Turin, Piedmont) is a former Italianfootballreferee. He is fluent in Italian, English and French. He started refereeing in 1983, and took charge of his first match in the Italian Serie A in 1996. He received his FIFA Badge in 2002.[1] Aside from his referee-duties, Rosetti works as director of a hospital.

Luciano Moggi, then general director of Juventus, had described Rosetti and his colleague Pierluigi Collina as being too 'objective' in an intercepted telephone call. Moggi also claimed that Rosetti and Collina should be 'punished' for decisions made against Juventus in that same phonecall.[3]

Rosetti emerged from the scandal unscathed.

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Rosetti was one of the many referees who officiated over the UEFA Champions League 2007–08. He refereed the semi-final between Chelsea and Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, earning the praise of UK television and radio commentators for his control of the game. Prior to the match, Liverpool coach Rafael Benítez had noted that the home side tends to emerge victorious when Rosetti referees.[4]

Rosetti was one of the many referees who officiated over the UEFA Champions League 2008–09. He attracted criticism for sending off Manchester United's Darren Fletcher during the second leg of the semi-final between Manchester United and Arsenal.[6] Rosetti allegedly saw Fletcher clip the back heel of Cesc Fàbregas, with Fàbregas falling in the penalty area. Replays later showed that Fletcher had touched the ball prior to fouling Fàbregas but he was still forced to miss the final. Nonetheless, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson refused to blame Rosetti afterwards, concluding that it was simply "terribly unlucky."[7] Retired English World Cup referee Graham Poll has since suggested that the referee was right to issue a red card as the fact that Fletcher touched the ball while committing the foul was in fact irrelevant under FIFA's revised law.[8]

Rosetti was preselected as a referee for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. His first match of the tournament was a 1-1 draw between Ghana and Australia. Rosetti made a crucial decision in the game, when he judged Australia's Harry Kewell to have handled the ball on the goal line, contentiously awarding Ghana a penalty kick as well as sending Kewell off for the offence. In his post match comments, Australian coach Pim Verbeek claimed Kewell's handball was a mistake, saying it was impossible for him to get out of the way and the only way he could do so was to cut his arm off. The next game he refereed was the Argentina–Mexico game in the Round of 16, where he decided to allow an offside goal his assistant referee Stefano Ayroldi missed.[9] The following day, Rosetti was left off the list of 19 referees announced by FIFA to take part in the rest of the competition although football's world governing body did not explain why. This decision affected Rosetti greatly and was the major reason behind his retirement.[10]